Along with development of science and technology, technical research on driverless vehicles, also called unmanned vehicles increases and becomes more and more mature. Since 1970's, developed countries such as the United States, Great Britain and Germany began to perform studies on unmanned vehicles, and made breaking-through progress in respect of feasibility and practicability. China began studies on unmanned vehicles since 1980's. In 1992, National University of Defense Technology succeeded in developing China's first truly unmanned vehicle.
Based on perceived information such as roads, vehicle position and barriers, an unmanned vehicle controls steering directions and speed of the vehicle to enable the vehicle to drive safely and reliably on the road. The unmanned vehicle integrates many technologies such as automation control, system structure, artificial intelligence and visual computing, proves to be a product of advanced development in computer sciences, model recognition and intelligent control technologies, as well as an important indication of scientific research power and industrial level of a country, and boasts a broad application prospect in the fields such as national defense and national economy.
The unmanned vehicle will be confronted with different road conditions during travel. At this time, all modules in the unmanned vehicle system are in a state of high-speed run, which causes unnecessary wear and loss and does not meet energy-saving and environment-friendly requirements.